FROM brightening fields of ether fair-disclosed,
Child of the sun, refulgent Summer comes

In pride of youth, and felt through nature's depth :

He comes, attended by the sultry hours

And ever-fanning breezes on his way;

While from his ardent look the turning Spring
Averts her blushful face, and earth and skies
All-smiling to his hot dominion leaves.

Hence let me haste into the mid-wood shade, Where scarce a sunbeam wanders through the gloom,

And on the dark-green grass, beside the brink
Of haunted stream that by the roots of oak
Rolls o'er the rocky channel, lie at large
And sing the glories of the circling year.
Come, Inspiration! from thy hermit-seat,
By mortal seldom found: may fancy dare,
From thy fixed serious eye and raptured glance
Shot on surrounding Heaven, to steal one look
Creative of the poet, every power
Exalting to an ecstasy of soul.

And thou, my youthful Muse's early friend,
In whom the human graces all unite-
Pure light of mind and tenderness of heart,
Genius and wisdom, the gay social sense
By decency chastised, goodness and wit

1, 2 From southern climes, where unremitting day
Burns overhead, illustrious Summer comes-

is the reading of the first ed. (1727).

1 brightening] yonder 1730-38.

1727-38. 12 oak] oaks 1727.

IO

20

2 refulgent] illustrious 16 fancy dare] I presume

1727. 17 eye] muse 1727-38; glance] eye 1730-38.

21-31

These lines are not found in the first ed. (1727). They first appear in 1730.

21 my youthful Muse's early] the Muse's

In seldom-meeting harmony combined,
Unblemished honour, and an active zeal
For Britain's glory, liberty, and man:
O Dodington! attend my rural song,
Stoop to my theme, inspirit every line,
And teach me to deserve thy just applause.

30

With what an awful world-revolving power Were first the unwieldy planets launched along The illimitable void !-thus to remain, Amid the flux of many thousand years That oft has swept the toiling race of men, And all their laboured monuments away, Firm, unremitting, matchless in their course; To the kind-tempered change of night and day, And of the seasons ever stealing round, Minutely faithful: such the all-perfect Hand That poised, impels, and rules the steady whole ! When now no more the alternate Twins are fired, And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze, Short is the doubtful empire of the night; And soon, observant of approaching day, The meek-eyed morn appears, mother of dews, At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east;

31 just] best 1730-38. 36 toiling] busy 1727-38. changeless 1727-38.

40

32 an awful] a perfect 1727-38. 38 Firm, unremitting] Unresisting,

39-42 Instead of these lines, the first ed. (1727) gives— To day and night, and (with 1730-38) the delightful round Of seasons faithful; not eccentric once:

So poised and perfect is the vast machine!

The change was made in 1744, except that 'all' was omitted from 1. 41.

45 doubtful] uncertain 1727. before approaching '. ·

་

46 Edd. 1730-38 insert' th' 48 Mildly elucent in the streaky

east 1727. The change was made in 1730.

50

Till far o'er ether spreads the widening glow,
And, from before the lustre of her face,
White break the clouds away. With quickened
step,

Brown night retires. Young day pours in apace,
And opens all the lawny prospect wide.

The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top
Swell on the sight and brighten with the dawn.
Blue through the dusk the smoking currents

shine ;

And from the bladed field the fearful hare

Limps awkward; while along the forest glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze
At early passenger. Music awakes,

60

The native voice of undissembled joy;
And thick around the woodland hymns arise.
Roused by the cock, the soon-clad shepherd
leaves

His mossy cottage, where with peace he dwells,
And from the crowded fold in order drives
His flock to taste the verdure of the morn.
Falsely luxurious, will not man awake,
And, springing from the bed of sloth, enjoy
The cool, the fragrant, and the silent hour,
To meditation due and sacred song?

For is there aught in sleep can charm the wise?
To lie in dead oblivion, losing half

The fleeting moments of too short a life-
Total extinction of the enlightened soul!

49 So in 1744. The line, added in 1730, readsTill far o'er ether shoots the trembling glow.

51 quickened] tardy 1727, 1730-38. 1730-38. 61 undissembling 1727.

70

55 sight] eye 1727,

68 starting 1727-38.

71 For] And 1727-38. 72 losing half] lost to all 1727.

Our natures boast of noble and divine 1727.

73

Or else, to feverish vanity alive,

80

Wildered, and tossing through distempered dreams!
Who would in such a gloomy state remain
Longer than nature craves; when every muse
And every blooming pleasure wait without
To bless the wildly-devious morning walk?
But yonder comes the powerful king of day
Rejoicing in the east. The lessening cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow
Illumed with Huid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad. Lo! now, apparent all,
Aslant the dew-bright earth and coloured air,
He looks in boundless majesty abroad,

And sheds the shining day, that burnished plays On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering streams

High-gleaming from afar. Prime cheerer, Light! 90
Of all material beings first and best!

Efflux divine! Nature's resplendent robe,
Without whose vesting beauty all were wrapt
In unessential gloom; and thou, O Sun!.
Soul of surrounding worlds! in whom best seen
Shines out thy Maker! may I sing of thee?
"Tis by thy secret, strong, attractive force,
As with a chain indissoluble bound,
Thy system rolls entire-from the far bourne
Of utmost Saturn, wheeling wide his round

100

83 brow] brim 1727-38. 84 Illumed] Tipt; fluid] ethereal 1727-38. 85 Lo!] And 1727-38. 94 O] red 1727-38. 95, 96 In whose wide circle worlds of radiance lie, Exhaustless Brightness! may I sing of thee ! 1727-38.

96 Following this line came in the first edd. (1727-38) a passage of five lines, which was dropped in 1744. The reader will find it in a Note at the end of the poem.

100-103 For these four lines the first ed. (1727) and subsequent edd. (1730-38) give

Of thirty years, to Mercury, whose disk
Can scarce be caught by philosophic eye,
Lost in the near effulgence of thy blaze.

Informer of the planetary train!

Without whose quickening glance their cumbrous orbs
Were brute unlovely mass, inert and dead,
And not, as now, the green abodes of life!
How many forms of being wait on thee,
Inhaling spirit, from the unfettered mind,
By thee sublimed, down to the daily race,
The mixing myriads of thy setting beam!
The vegetable world is also thine,
Parent of Seasons! who the pomp precede
That waits thy throne, as through thy vast domain,
Annual, along the bright ecliptic road

119

In world-rejoicing state it moves sublime.
Meantime the expecting nations, circled gay
With all the various tribes of foodful earth,
Implore thy bounty, or send grateful up
A common hymn: while, round thy beaming car,
High-seen, the Seasons lead, in sprightly dance
Harmonious knit, the rosy-fingered hours,
The zephyrs floating loose, the timely rains,
Of bloom ethereal the light-footed dews,
And, softened into joy, the surly storms.
These, in successive turn, with lavish hand

Of slow-paced Saturn to the scarce-seen disk

Of Mercury lost in excessive blaze.

The change was made in 1744.

105, 106 Without whose vital and effectual glance They'd bo but (They would be) brute, uncomfortable mass 1727-38.

109 spirit] gladness 1727-38.

that day-living 1727-38.

110 down to the daily] to

111 setting] evening 1727.

113-135 The original text differed from this. It will be found (with the alterations and additions made in 1730) in a Note at the end of the poem.